What is insanity? Can we treat it?

"Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?" 

This man is wrong.

I heard this question recently as I was playing through a game, and it got me thinking... What is insanity? A chemical imbalance in our brain? A detachment from morality, a lack of empathy to ones fellow man? Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result?
"I don't know" was the only answer I could come up with, but having done some investigation I now know what insanity is, and I can define it.

Contrary to popular belief, Insanity is not defined as “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”, rather, insanity is a legal term used to determine a candidates ability to determine right from wrong, fantasy from reality. In short the term has no real place outside of a court of law, however, even if insanity does not exist as a true medical condition, Psychosis does.

Psychosis however, is not a condition; it is a symptom of a psychiatric disorder, which range from Schizophrenia to Bipolar disorder. Psychosis is a term that refers to an abnormality that affects an individuals mind distorting their view of reality and mixing it in with their imagination, causing their actions and personality to rapidly alter as they lose all contact with reality. As I said, Psychosis is only a symptom, not a disorder, so then what mental disorders are attributed to psychosis? There are simply to many to count, however I can list a few of the more well known ones:

• Bipolar Disorder: Psychosis is extremely common in people who have been diagnosed with Type1 Bipolar Disorder, wherein their mood swings can take exceptionally strong turns, causing the person to take to grandiose ideas; believing they have super-powers, that they are someone else, or the laws of physics don’t apply to them. Some cases have had people who believed themselves invulnerable and taken to the streets to test it, ending up jumping in front of vehicles and sustaining significant injuries.
• Major depression: Many people who suffer from Extreme depression claim to hear voices, these voices tell them they are worthless, accuse them of things they have not done and constantly attack the will of the sufferer. A person suffering from this form of depression is said to be suffering from Psychotic Depression, wherein the lines of reality have been broken so far as the person unconsciously creates an antagonizing figure to harass them in day to day life. These voices or figures influence the emotions of the sufferer, causing the condition to steadily grow worse and worse as they unconsciously fuel their own self destructive urges.
• Delusional disorder: Commonly known as Paranoia, people with this disorder suffer from mostly probably, yet unlikely delusions, such as being followed, their significant other cheating on them, being poisoned or that their closest friend is conspiring against them. There are a few subtypes of Delusional Disorder, like Erotomatic Disorder which manifests in the belief that an individual is in love with the sufferer and the sufferer will go to lengths to track them down or stalk the individual so they can be together (Like the atypical clingy ex!).
• Schizophrenia: One of the most commonly misunderstood mental illnesses, Schizophrenia is caused by severe Psychosis, the complete loss of a balance between reality and fantasy. Many Schizophrenic’s are in literal worlds of their own, completely separated from the world around them, either unable or unwilling to perceive what is around them. Some doctors however, say that they are not so much detached from reality, but caught in an alternate reality of their own division as no-one can fully prove that reality is, well… real. However that is a completely different story.

These were only a few examples of the mental disorders that are linked to Psychosis, there are many more medical conditions affected by Psychosis. The question I pose however is, can we treat Psychosis with natural means?

So far there are few proven methods to cure any form of Psychosis; there are however several studies that demonstrate that Vitamin therapy can be highly beneficial for sufferers of Psychosis. Claiming to be able to keep the delusions, or breaks in reality (moments wherein the sufferer cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy) to a minimum, both in length and frequency. The problems with these trials however, is that many suffers of Psychosis cannot give accurate feedback on the effects of the therapy, which causes obvious problems in the data collection process. 

Few patients who have been subjected to these trials and later cured of their Psychosis attribute the change to the vitamin therapy however. Mainly used in these trials, is the Vitamin B, which is also attributed with the highest success rate in treating Psychosis, particularly vitamins B3, B6 and B12. You see, some doctor’s say that Psychosis can be caused by failures in the nerves and Vitamin B (In all forms) helps create healthy nerve cells. It has been shown that people with Vitamin B deficiency develop psychosis and other mental illnesses more commonly.

Although it has been not been shown that Vitamin B can cure Psychosis, it has been shown to halt the onset of Psychosis related illness. So in answer to my opening question, no there is no natural way to cure Psychosis, but there are natural ways to protect yourself against Psychosis. By increasing your intake of Vitamin B you can help to build your defenses against mental illness, so here are a few naturally occurring sources of Vitamin B:

• Vegetables
• Peas
• Fresh and Dried fruit
• Eggs
• Wholegrain Breads
• Some fortified breakfast cereals
• Liver